Thanks to one person (Reader SF), the owner of this property has been cited for 24 separate code violations by Baltimore Housing. The home is occupied as a rooming house (some would say flophouse), with people living in the unfinished basement, in dangerous conditions. The tenant who was living in the cellar filed a rent escrow complaint with the District Court of Baltimore City, but the complaint was dismissed. Unfortunately, this is a story we hear far too often — our District Court judges need to pay more attention to these complaints, and take these cases seriously when the tenant has documentation to back up their claims. Nobody should be forced to live in uninhabitable dangerous conditions, only to be told by a judge “Too bad.”

The code violations are as follows:

Hallway at top of basement steps: Defective floor

Basement steps: Area lacks proper protection

Basement steps: Defective stair riser(s)

Basement rear wall: Defective wall

Throughout basement: Illegal extension cords

Basement rear ceiling: Defective electrical fixture

Basement front: Multiple defective electrical outlets

Basement front: Defective water pipe

Dining room wall: Defective electrical outlet

First floor kitchen: Defective floor

First floor kitchen ceiling: Defective ceiling

First floor kitchen: Fuse box missing

First floor kitchen: Windows or doors not weatherproof

First floor kitchen: Defective door hardware

First floor kitchen: Defective electrical outlet

Rear second floor bathroom: Window glass cracked or missing

Rear second floor bathroom: Defective toilet

Throughout second floor bathroom: Defective walls

Rear basement: Cellar being used as habitable space

The owner, an LLC, has been given 30 days to correct all violations, and has also been ordered to stop allowing people to live in the cellar. You can read the violation notice, in its entirety, by downloading this PDF file.

This is just one of hundreds of unsafe, unhealthy homes I heard about in 2014. Our elected officials need to do more to hold these property owners accountable. Many times the residents won’t complain out of fear of retaliation and being evicted (link opens a PDF) — but this resident complained, and most likely — she and her family will have to move. Why should our most vulnerable residents bear the burden of unsafe and unhealthy housing when we have laws in place to stop property owners like this one? Hold these folks accountable, and demand that our state and local government enforce the laws intended to protect residents from unsafe housing.

Residents in one Baltimore neighborhood have been complaining about one house for months. 311 calls, online complaints, emails to Councilman Curran’s office — and nothing was done…until the residents banded together on their neighborhood’s Facebook group, as reported by the Baltimore Brew.

For months, the residents of the home were dumping human waste into the alley, and leaving buckets of waste at the rear of the property. Neighbors filed multiple 311 complaints, called and emailed their councilman — all the things you’re supposed to do, as a good neighbor, to no avail. I happened to read about all of this on the neighborhood’s Facebook group, and sent an email to Baltimore Housing. Fern Shen of the Brew wrote about the issue, and inspectors were quickly dispatched to the property, where inspectors found more than they bargained for. As a result, the residents of the home have been moved out, and the house has been deemed uninhabitable by Baltimore Housing, and will be secured.

What irks me, however, are the statements made by Alli Smith, deputy director of the Mayor’s Office of Neighborhoods and Christine Muldowney, a staffer for Councilman Curran.

“I’m glad this issue was resolved eventually. In the future, if you need assistance with issues in the neighborhood, or need to know which agency can resolve a certain issue – the Mayor’s Office of Neighborhoods is a great resource and you can contact your neighborhood liaison directly,” said Alli Smith, deputy director of that office, writing on the Facebook thread.

“Yes, direct contact is best since there is no guarantee that a city liaison of Mayor or Council will see it,” agreed Christine Muldowney, a staffer for 3rd District Councilman Robert Curran. “I just accidentally saw post here.”

While I agree the initial complaint shouldn’t be on social media, I strongly disagree that these neighbors shouldn’t have complained publicly, using the tools available to them. Isn’t this what social media is for? And what about all of the residents’ 311 calls and emails to the councilman’s office? Why did they go ignored until the issue was made public by the Brew?

This isn’t the first time a resident living in squalor was ignored until it was made public. I’ve personally written about three, and there are many I didn’t write about — didn’t need to, since the issues were resolved through Baltimore Housing. You can read about one of the worst cases I wrote about here.

Many kudos to these residents, and to the Brew, for taking the initiative to get this issue resolved. Hopefully this story encourages more residents to band together, using all the tools available — including social media, to make their communities better.

A bunch of properties featured on the blog will be auctioned off at the end of the month — hopefully they’ll go to owners will will do something with them, and not people who will continue to let them deteriorate.

Many thanks to the attorneys at Baltimore Housing for their hard work getting these properties away from their neglectful owners:

Note: This home is currently going through the receivership process. While not as dramatic as being run out of town by the state attorney general, I have noticed many more of this slumlord’s homes are going into receivership — hopefully this trend continues.

This property, one of many owned by shell entities created by slumlord Stanley Rochkind and his associates, went through the receivership process, and will soon be auctioned off — hopefully to someone who will actually maintain the property and not allow it to fall into ruin.

See the property and the original post (from January of this year) here.

I’m absolutely thrilled to report that 4817 Arabia Avenue has finally been purchased and renovated — and a beautiful renovation it is! This success story happened because the neighbors banded together and made sure this home didn’t continue as an eyesore — and also through the hard work of our Housing attorneys and Code Enforcement folks.